Barriers to CO₂ abatement impede their materialisation. In this research the Y-factor was used in expert interviews to gather information on the barriers to the materialisation of four abatement options in the Netherlands: Insulation, Carbon Capture Storage, Biofuels and Geothermal energy. The potential of these options for the Netherlands is relevant, although no acceleration of their realisation has taken place. The Y-factor proved to be a suitable research method to systematically research materialisation barriers from a system’s perspective as it included barriers related to costs and financing, multi-actor complexity, physical interdependencies and behaviour. The supporting stories of the barrier scores and links between barriers revealed the complexity of materialisation. Additional scoping of abatement options and clarification of barrier definitions can increase informative value of the supporting stories and increase the scoring quality. Researching abatement options when using a system’s perspective can improve the understanding of barriers to CO₂ abatement.